Organic Living: Update

Hello, friends! 

I truly hope all is well with you. I hope you are enjoying your Summer with good health, love,  quality family time, shopping at your local Farmer's market, and many trips to the swimming pool. 

I wanted to give you an update on our new organic lifestyle. As of today, we have been on this adventure for three whole weeks. My original plan was to take this journey two weeks at a time..meaning, I wanted to cut wheat, then sugar, then caffeine, and so on. Well, when we arrived at our two week mark, we just were not ready to add on another huge change. So instead of being on a regimen, we are taking it as it comes. I really want this to stick, and I want to it be as easy as possible. 

So, how has it been so far? Well, honestly, it has been so great! After our first week being so easy and profitable, I was afraid it would only go down hill from there. But it really hasn't. And let me tell you, that has only been possible with God's help. I pray for strength and will power everyday. He has been right by me, helping me learn and teaching me new things everyday. I have been reading the Hallelujah Acres book. {here} I get so overwhelmed with the realization of all I desperately need to change. I have no other choice than to get on my knees and ask God for help. I ask Him to give my mind the ability to retain all I am learning. I ask Him to show me what I need to know need what I need to do in oder to be healthy and live my life to it's fullest. There is so much I want to do, and there is so much I feel God showing me to do. I want to have the energy and ability to keep up with Him. {more on that later} 

After 3 weeks wheat free: 

Cury: 
+11 lbs. down
+energetic
+motivated
+happier
+less irritable 
+better sleeping habits

Kendra: 
+more energy
+motivated
+less irritable
+MUCH better sleeping habits
+no more joint pain
+mild lingering cold-like symptoms {common in a drastic change in diet}
+better abilities to hold focus


Both of us: 
+we have much more respect for people with a gluten intolerance
+much larger grocery bill 
+new perspective on food and eating
+we are full of gratitude for the many resources out there...
           >Lacy and Meg
           >eat. live. make
           >rabbit food for my bunny teeth
                                         ...just to name a few 



I would love to hear of any resources you use.

 Happy Monday :) 

Currently....

Hello everyone! 

This blogging journey has been so much fun for me. I haven't been quite sure what direction I would like to go with it. But after a lot of thought and a lot of changes in my life, I think I finally know! yay! I don't want to give away any surprises, so just trust me. It's going to be good. There will be DIYs, challenges, facts on organic living, book recommendations, must see places, talks about God, and much, much more. 

Which brings me to this... my husband, Cury, and I started a new journey in our lives- a new way of living. We are on the road to a Vegan lifestyle, and honestly, I couldn't be more excited. Cury on the other hand... not quite as much excitement. But He's determined to try, and I am so proud of him for that. 

I did NOT want to over-whelm ourselves with don't eat this or throw all of these away. I've decided to take it step by step. 

Challenge One: NO WHEAT 
Challenge Two: NO SUGAR
Challenge Three: NO CAFINE 
Challenge Four: NO DAIRY
Challenge Five: NO MEAT

We are currently in the NO WHEAT phase. Each phase will last {aprox. 3 weeks} Why three weeks? I really want to see the results of cutting out the wheat before adding on sugar. Cury wants to lose weight throughout this journey, and I don't want to not know what is helping most. I thought no wheat was going to be the easiest one. Let me tell you, it is a challenge for sure! Wheat is in just about everything... bread {obviously} pizza, pasta, cereal, pancakes, cake, scones, cookies {or any pastry} pretzels, crackers, granola bars, many dressings, muffins, bagels, any and all fast-food, the list goes on and on. Prior to starting this whole thing. I read the book, Wheat Belly,{link to purchase here} I highly recommend this read. I can't believe how much I learned. I read it because I wanted to be knowledgable of what we were about to get into. I really don't want to focus on what we are giving up. I want to focus on what we are gaining from all of this. 

So after the Wheat phase, we will add on the NO SUGAR phase and so on. At the end of this, we will be Vegans! I told my husband that I would like for him to stick with it strictly for the 3 weeks after NO MEAT, then he can decide what he will do from there. If he does decide to eat meat and a few of the other things... it will be in moderation. We will never {prayerfully} go back to how we ate before this. I am just so excited that I get to share this with you. If you have any tips, recipes, or anything else, please let me know! I could use the help :) 

After one week of NO WHEAT...

Cury:
less groggy 
less stress
headache on Sunday 
migraine on Monday *maybe detox related*
more energy

Kendra:
less groggy
more energy
no stomach aches
not so tired
not so moody
sore throat started around 3pm on Monday :/ 


Please stay tuned.. I have so much to share with you, friend.

Blessed

It's Sunday afternoon, and here I am just getting out of a hot bath, laying in bed with a sweet tea and cosmopolitan magazine beside me. This is the first moment I have been able to relax  this week. With work all week and the Tecumseh Art walk Friday night, I had no spare time whatsoever. {I missed blogging by the way} But each time I sat down to blog, my mind filled with 1000+ things that I should do to prepare for the Art Walk.  

Please note: I am NOT complaining by any means. I had an amazing time doing all that I did. {hence the title of this post} I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the Art Walk. It was worth every bit of hard work put into it. Here are some pictures for those of you who were unable to attend...

My table. 

Could not have done any of this without my mom {and Lex-photographer} They helped with set up, and Mom gave me some awesome pointers before going into this. She's incredible. 

My sweet husband and me. He probably had equal the amount of work to do for this show. He made the beautiful jewelry display for me. He loaded up all of my things and started setting up for me before I could get there. Darling, you're wonderful. 

Here are some of my loyal "fans" and customers...

Aunt Vicki & Aunt Debbi

Brother-Zach & lovely sister-Ashley

Cousin-Josh & his beautiful wife, Jessy

The night was no doubt a success. I had the best time meeting new people and spending sweet time with my family. Plus, Be You. got her name out there. :)  Thank you, Jessy, for including Be You. in the Tecumseh Art walk. You're the best! 

Whenever life gets busy,  I am always afraid that I will forget gratitude. I never want to get "too busy" to be kind, show gratitude, and praise God for His goodness.  

Here is a little something I like to do in my journal...

love in numbers: 

Four: the amount of days I had the privilege to nanny Madeleine this week. 

ten: how many sweet teas I've drank this week. I love sweet tea.

180: dollars I made at the Art Walk.

one: trip to the Spotted Cow. 

sixty four: degrees on Saturday. Mr. Sun, it was lovely to see you again.

fifty-two: the new age of my Dad. Happy birthday, Dad! I love you. 

thousand+ : the amount of times I laughed, was kissed, and heard Madeleine ask, "why, Kiki?" 

Countless: The number of prayers and the gratitude I have for this life and the people in it. 

Eleven months with you...

Cury,

I know I recently wrote a blog post to you, but I love you so why not write another, right?
These past eleven months have been "Incredible, Darling" {said in a British voice of course}   Since marrying you, my whole life has changed. I moved out of my parents house. I moved in with a boy for the first time! {outside of Dad and Zach} We have gone on a few trips together. I opened an  Etsy shop. We have tried to figure out this whole wife role, husband role thing {maybe one day we will actually figure it out!} You started a new career. We became the youth leaders at our church. We have become more established in our faith. We have watched ALL seven seasons of Supernatural in one summer {talk about accomplishment} We have learned SO much about each other... you don't like tomatoes {no matter how many ways I make you try them} you can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. I know when you're mad because you try to be overly happy. You love popcorn..like every night. You give the best back rubs. You smile the biggest when I surprise you. You have the ability to be best friends with someone you met two seconds ago. You always encourage me to dream big. I could go on and on... back to our lives changing... There really isn't one area that hasn't changed in my life since marrying you. While there are some things that were hard to adjust to {mostly not living with my family} I can honestly say it has been an amazing adventure. An adventure I wouldn't want to miss for the world. Even with its imperfections, tears, and heartache- it's ours, and it's beautiful.  

I love you, Cury!

-Ken

My wedding gift to Cury was that I would get him a little something

 each month in our first year of marriage. 

This month's gift was kind of for both of us...

I ordered a panel of one of our wedding photos through Snapfish. 

I was so happy with how it turned out. After seeing Zach and Ashley's {my brother and Sister-in-law}

panel of their wedding photo,  I had to get one for us. 

I, of course, had to get one of Otis too. I just love this picture of him!

I'm sure I will have a whole wall of panels before long!

We then headed over to the new Spotted Cow in Tecumseh.

Cookies -n- cream for him.. Moose tracks for me!

Happy 11 Months, Love!

Our Weekend...

Here is a look at our weekend... It was full of all kinds of excitement. 

Lexi and I went to Starbucks after work on Friday for some much needed sister time. We had so much fun laughing and catching up on each other's lives. {Lex, let's not wait that long to do this again...I miss you!}

 Not to mention, this beauty came in the mail for me Friday too! I was WAY too excited. My dream camera was now in my hands.. AHH! 

So, of course the rest of the weekend was full of taking photographs...

...of EVERYTHING! :) 

I met my wonderful parents for brunch on Saturday. {sorry, no pictures} We had so much to talk about that I forgot to take pictures. We did have a great time. Though I could write a whole blog {or even a book} about how great my parents are, that's not what THIS blog post is about. But I will say that God was so good in giving me the parents I have. They are the most genuine, kind, and beautiful people you will ever meet. Here is one of my favorite pictures of them...

Aren't they cute :) 

The rest of our Saturday consisted of driving all over Adrian- my least favorite city.. possibly in the whole world- but we had things to do. This made the trip worth it...

Iced Caramel Macchiato with an extra shot of Caramel :) 

   

Of course church on Sunday...

When we got home from church, we cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned. For two whole hours. It was worth it though. I feel so much better when our house is clean. 

 

Then a nap was in order after all the cleaning. 

Just when you though we were done with Starbucks..we made another trip. 

I also had today off work. I was able to get so much done!

New Spring earrings at Be You. Follow this to my shop.

I made another attempt to teach myself to sew...Epic Fail yet again. One of these days You will be able to purchase a Be You. clutch. I will let you know when. Don't hold your breath though!  

I has this little cutie following me around all day :) 

I cut Cury's hair

Isn't he handsome? 

Played with the camera some more... 

Then we ended the night with our favorite movie, Les Miserables. I don't think I have ever been so inspired by a movie as much as this one. If you haven't watched it yet {or read the book} I HIGHLY recommend it! There are several stories throughout the movie, but the basic summary of the movie is, "To love another person is to see the face of God." 

I hope you had a lovely weekend as well :) 

 

My Love

Cury and me on our wedding night. 

        Today is just a regular day, it's not an anniversary of ours or anything. I just wanted to write about Cury. The photo above was taken at the hotel we stayed at on our wedding night. That was such an exciting time in our lives, and it only gets better each day with you. Remember we would just stare at each other then start laughing? It felt so surreal. I remember thinking, "Is this real? I must be dreaming."  Well, I would have been a lovely dream if it were, but it wasn't. It was the start of our new life together. Who better to do that with than your best friend? That night we just relaxed, talked about highlights from Our day, and ate all the snacks the darling, Lexi {my sister} packed my car full of. 

        Cury, I cannot believe we are coming up on eleven months as husband and wife! That can't be right, can it? It seems like just yesterday that we were on our Senior trip to Disney World. {when you made your first move on me ;)} I think we both knew then that it would last forever. This year has had it's wonderful ups and extreme downs. I don't think either of us were expecting things like that to happen. I know we both wish we could have gone without some of those extreme lows. But that's life and that's marriage. And the best part of it is that we have each other. Each low, each pain, and each heartache is an opportunity to love each other that much more. I know I can say that I love you more than I did in Disney World. I love you more than I did last May 4th. I love you more than I did on our honeymoon. And I love you more than I did yesterday. I love you, Cury. Thank you for being everything I want and need. 

        It has been the most amazing eleven months of my life!

Thank you! 

-K